Flavorful and tasty, Mary Berry Tuna Pasta Bake with corn, peas and cheese is ideal for satisfying even the most demanding palates.
I love this recipe because it’s a great dish to have in your arsenal. This is a healthy, quick and simple first course but full of flavor, ideal to serve as a single dish. Agree?
Yields: 6 portion
Prep Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 25 mins Total: 50 mins
Why Should You Try This Tuna Pasta Bake?
It’s been a long time since I made baked pasta. I wanted a hearty meal which could be prepared easily on a Saturday morning for a quick tasty lunch. I wanted to prepare something different for lunch using tuna and peas since I needed to clean the freezer from all the packs of peas I have stored right after harvest. Basically there’s no difference if you use canned or frozen peas and I always advise to use first whatever you have in your pantry so that you don’t have to throw away any food that goes bad.
To complete the sauce for the pasta , before putting it in the oven, I added some béchamel freshly prepared with the butter, flour and milk, corn and a large handful of cheddar cheese. Effectively, the cheddar cheese is the secret ingredient for this kind of pasta because it becomes irresistibly stringy when cooked. I advise you to cook the pasta until that crunchy crust forms on the surface, which is the icing on the cake for any baked pasta.
If you love rich first courses of this type, I recommend baked macaroni with ragu or the pasta Gigi with a spicy vodka sauce. For those of you who want a light healthy seafood starter I suggest the smoked salmon risotto with prawns ideal for both cold and warm weather. Another popular seafood appetizer among our readers and also a recipe by Mary Berry is the Salmon Quiche which is even tastier than the classic version.
Ingredients
- 14 oz rigatoni pasta
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1 onion, peeled and chopped finely
- ⅓ cup plain (all-purpose) flour
- 2 1/2 cups milk
- 2 1/2 cups strong cheddar, grated
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
- 2 x 6 oz tuna cans, drained and flaked
- 2 x 6 oz sweetcorn cans, drained
- 1 cup frozen peas
- chopped parsley to serve
Method
PRE-PREPARATION
- Heat oven to 180C
- Boil the rigatoni or penne “al dente” by cooking them less than stated on the pack. They should remain a little hard so that then they will continue to cook in the oven.
COOK THE BECHAMEL SAUCE
- Melt the butter in a saucepan stirring in the flour.
- Gradually stir in the milk to make a thick white sauce.
- Remove from the heat and stir in almost all of the grated cheddar except a handful to leave at the end.
MIX THE PASTA WITH THE SAUCE & INGREDIENTS
- Drain the pasta, mix with the bechamel sauce, drained tuna, drained sweetcorn and a large handful of chopped parsley then season with salt and pepper.
- Add the pasta mix to a baking dish and top with the rest of the grated cheddar.
- Bake for 15-20 mins until the cheese on top is golden and starting to brown.
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Mary Berry Tuna Pasta Bake
Ingredients
- 14 oz rigatoni pasta
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1 onion peeled and chopped finely
- ⅓ cup plain all-purpose flour
- 2 1/2 cups milk
- 2 1/2 cups strong cheddar grated
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
- 2 x 6 oz tuna cans drained and flaked
- 2 x 6 oz sweetcorn cans drained
- 1 cup frozen peas
- chopped parsley to serve
Instructions
PRE-PREPARATION
- Heat oven to 180C
- Boil the rigatoni or penne “al dente” by cooking them less than stated on the pack. They should remain a little hard so that then they will continue to cook in the oven.
COOK THE BECHAMEL SAUCE
- Melt the butter in a saucepan stirring in the flour.
- Gradually stir in the milk to make a thick white sauce.
- Remove from the heat and stir in almost all of the grated cheddar except a handful to leave at the end.
PREPARE THE TUNA BAKE
- Drain the pasta, mix with the bechamel sauce, drained tuna, drained sweetcorn and a large handful of chopped parsley then season with salt and pepper.
- Add the pasta mix to a baking dish and top with the rest of the grated cheddar.
- Bake for 15-20 mins until the cheese on top is golden and starting to brown.